Wills Pawn Shop Cincinnati Ohio |
I lurked around music stores in my area, and bothered the salesmen. I called up music stores, and asked what they had in stock and how much their guitars cost. And I went to pawn shops.
Glittery Italian Guitars made at accordion factories |
At the time, most stores carried Fender, Gibson, Guild, Martin. A few sold Gretsch, and one store in town even carried Rickenbacker guitars. But none of the retail music stores carried those gorgeous sparkly, glittery, eye-catching guitars made from celluloid material. These were sold in pawn shops.
Those curious guitars had brand names like Crucianelli, Bartolini, Gemelli, Zerosette, Beltone, and…Welson(?).
By that name, Welson, you may have thought that brand of guitar was made in the USA, or the U.K; but you would be wrong.
Early 1960's Welson Guitar |
Quagliardi Accordion |
Around 1962, the guitar boom first started. There was going to be be a high demand for guitars, especially electric guitars, and the company was there to offer their products.
Welson, and other Italian builders, applied accordion manufacturing techniques to the electric guitars.
Mid 1960's Welson Guitars |
1964 and 1962 Welson Guitars |
The controls for volume and tone were roller type potentiometers. The switches and pots were usually mounted on the pickguard.
Many of these instruments came with fixed bridges, and a vibrato tailpiece.
1964-65 Welson Guitar |
On Welson guitars, the upper edge of the pickguard was bedecked with a metal Welson badge logo; a five point crown with the name Welson beneath it. These guitars had a bolt-on necks with a six-in-a-line headstock.
1963 Welson Beltone |
On early models the neck was painted black. Later models had bare necks. The neck and headstock were usually bound. There was no logo on the earlier headstocks.
1964 Welson neck pocket |
Instead of leaving the end of the neck flat, as on Fender guitars, Welson luthiers carved out an elliptical pocket at the top of the body for the neck to fit into. It was then bolted in place. These guitars generally used open back machine heads with plastic buttons. Some of these were sold in the United States under the Beltone brand name.
1964 Welson Vedette |
Around 1964 the design changed to mostly sunburst finishes on their solid body guitars. The necks were no longer painted, and the machine heads were of a better quality. The badge logos were now only the five pointed crown, or sometimes were no longer added. At other times they were embedded into the metal section of the scratch guard.
Early 1960's Welson bass |
During the latter part of the 1960's, the company also began to offer some hollow body instruments, both for guitar and bass guitars. These instruments featured rotary potentiometers for volume and tone, and Switchcraft-style single or double throw switches to control the pickup selection, instead of the rocker style on/off switches.
In the latter part of the 1960’s Welson began building guitars that were copies of Gibson’s ES-335 style body, but in a modified shape.
Welson DS-2 |
Welson DS-3 |
Welson DS-12 |
During these days, some American companies looking to cash in on the guitar boon took note. The Wurlitzer Piano and Organ Company contracted with Welson to build a couple of models to be sold under the Wurlitzer brand. These included the Wurlitzer model 7741 guitar, in the 335 style.
Wurlitzer model 7741 |
The Wurlitzer 7741 was a Welson model D2, re-badged with Wurlitzer’s logo. The guitar had two double coil pickups, a three position switch that went from Solo to Sharp to Wild, and a vibrato tailpiece.
Wurlitzer 7780 bass and 7730 guitar made by Welson |
The Wurlitzer model 7780 was a bass version of this instrument, with double coil pickups, and a large metal cover with an embossed “W” that went over the tail piece. Both of these Wurlitzer models come with bolted on necks.
Dynacord DC3 |
A German audio company, Dynacord, sold re-branded Welson guitars from 1966 through 1967. They sold several models including the three pickup Dynacord DC3. This was another 335 style body, which had 3 single throw switches on its upper cutaway horn. Each pickup had a volume, and tone control. The guitar came with a vibrato tailpiece.
Dynacord "The Cora" |
But the most unusual Welson model that Dynacord offered was called The Cora. This was a three pickup guitar, with not much of a body at all. In fact it was called an “open body” guitar. The center of the guitar was the body, and it had metal bars jutting from it, that formed a guitar shape. A most interesting instrument indeed, and ahead of its time.
Welson made Vox guitars The Tornado, The Wildcat, The Typoon and The Bossman |
Most Vox guitars were built in Italy. Welson supplied a few single cutaway electric jazz guitars for Vox.
The Vox solid body guitars were mostly built by EKO, another Italian guitar factory. Most of the other electric acoustic, and semi-acoustic guitars were built by another Italian manufacturer called Crucianelli.
A double and triple pickup Welson, a Vox triple pickup, and a Kinton four pickup |
Playboy Guitars made by Welson |
They also produced a couple of single pickup budget models with this body style that were re-badged under the Playboy brand.
Playboy Guitar headstock |
The "Playboy" logo was printed on a piece of laminate and attached by screws to the headstock.
1969 Welson Golden Arrow |
Welson Florentine Cutaway |
Welson also made a few semi-acoustic electric guitars and a bass with Florentine cutaways. These are quite rare instruments. The were made during 1967-1968.
Welson Asymetrical Florentine cutaway, with retro-fit Dimarzio pickups |
Another Welson style was the asymmetrical Florentine cutaway guitar. It came with twin pickups, and a vibrato unit.
Dynacord Bass made by Welson |
A slightly different version of this guitar was marketed under the Dynacord brand. A bass guitar in this same style was also sold by Dynacord, but manufactured by Welson.
Welson M-62 and M-63 |
Welson also made a few single cutaway Jazz style guitars. Notably these were the model M-62, and M-63.
A jazz style guitar was made for the Wurlitzer company. This was the sunburst deep bodied, twin pickup model 7730. The same guitar was available in a cherry-burst finish called the model 7731. Though it appears to have a set neck, the neck is actually a bolt-on style.
Orpheum guitar |
Starfire VI |
Welson was ready to fill the void. They also produced the same instruments under the Welson brand name.
Starfire Bass |
The Welson model guitar was named the Starfire VI. The bass version was given the designation the Starfire Bass.
Welson Les Paul and SG style guitars |
By 1971 Welson was concentrating on building Les Paul and SG copies. These would be the final electric guitars that the company produced.
A Welson six and 12 string, and an Orpheum 12 string |
Through the years Welson also made some budget acoustic guitars under their own brand, and they made guitars for other companies as well.
After 1972, the company quit making guitars and accordions, then concentrated their efforts on making organs, and compact keyboards. They went out of business in 1981.
5 comments:
Great overview, thank you so much!
Thank you for stopping by Kennast.
~Marc
Hello Marc
i have a semi-acoustic welson 4 pick up guitar , like kinton , vox. I want to sale it but i don't know the price that i can ask . have you an idea it seems that this guitar is very rare
best regards from france.
sebastien
I bought a Welson in 1969. Looked like an ES335. Had the worst action ever. Went back to the store and demanded a trade -- for an actual 335! I was very happy!
Bought a Gibson Es125 tdc in 1974. My first ‘real electric. At seven years of age, it was already suffering from a bad neck reset. Worst action I’ve ever had - and the repairs needed turned out to be more than the value of the guitar! So back it went to the very same pawn shop - just two years later... They happily took it back in - tossing me twenty five extra bucks back over the first deal!
Fast forward to 2017... I acquired a very nice Vox Typhoon jazzbox - made by Welson! It covered spaghetti Westerns; spy movie themes; retro; and Euro-jazz galore! Oh - and the setup? Nice ‘n low - with a wide and playable neck - all the way up to the cutaway! Could have bought six of them for the price of that old Gibson now.
David M
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